I’m constantly thinking about how we can help improve the state of corporate blogging in the world, and it’s a tough challenge.

I think the main problem is the word corporate. Much as a “corporate suit” doesn’t inspire confidence and a “corporate office park” doesn’t make you want to hang out for the day, a “corporate blog” sounds horribly unexciting from the get-go.

Of course a rose can still be still a rose, and many corporate blogs are incredibly worthwhile and filled with valuable content.

But just as many aren’t. Why? Because they misunderstand what a good corporate blog is.

Here’s the answer in a nutshell: A good corporate blog is simply one written by or on behalf of a corporate entity. It is not one written about that corporate entity.

So many corporations don’t get this, and they use their blogs exclusively for self-promotion. They are studded with press releases and announcements of bugs in their products. They are filled with news of executive hires and promotions. In a nutshell, they are exclusively about themselves. In the real world, we call this “navel gazing.”

And then, as I am often asked, why don’t people want to read this corporate blog?

Hey, a little self-promotion isn’t a bad thing. But maybe the first step in reinventing your corporate blog is to think about it differently. Call it an industry blog, a business blog (as our client Intuit does), or a news blog. Take the “corporate” out of the name, and maybe, slowly, you and your bloggers will start to see there are lots of additional topics out there worth exploring. And that’s how you reach your customers and clients.

Christopher Null is the founder and owner of Null Media LLC. A 20-year veteran of the magazine and internet trade, he's worked for some of the biggest names on the web and in publishing, including Yahoo!, Intuit, Ziff-Davis Media, Future Networks, McGraw-Hill, and CMP Media.